DME potential for data capability

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and aviation stakeholders are modernizing the National Airspace System (NAS) from operations based on analog communications, fix-to-fix navigation, and surveillance; to operations based on digital communications, Performance Based Navigation (PBN), and Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B), through the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) program. To improve the safety, security, and efficiency of air traffic operations, more digital information technologies are being introduced to provide additional Communications, Navigation, and Surveillance (CNS) services. Through aviation radio technology advancement, it may be possible to increase the data capacity and functionality of existing systems and still maintain backward compatibility without increasing the demand on the already crowded aviation spectrum. This paper presents concepts for transparently introducing data capabilities into the Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) signal, and identifies potential aviation applications that may make use of this data capability. In conducting our research, we developed both analytical and simulation models for assessing the DME data capacities. We also evaluated various potential CNS services that could be enabled, and found that DME spectrum could be used more efficiently, providing a channel for data exchange to support additional CNS services.